But they still have Matt Stevko. For one night at least, the senior made everyone in a Shelton uniform forget about the past and look to the future. The senior defensive back was the difference in Shelton's hotly-contested 28-7 victory over Newtown at rainy Finn Stadium Friday night.

He returned the season-opening kickoff a touchdown and intercepted a pair of passes to help Shelton keep Newtown at arm's length for most of the game.

"It's awesome," said Stevko, one of seven returning starters. "A lot of people didn't think we were going to do great this year. But we did awesome. We're getting together and we're just playing hard."

He had some help, especially from his defensive teammates who sacked Newtown senior quarterback Jake DeVellis four times (twice by Ken Stebbins), intercepted him three times and allowed just one touchdown in the second quarter.

Paul Piccirillo threw a 28-yard halfback option touchdown pass to Nick Georgalas. Junior tailback Joel Youd did his best Schultz impression, rushing for 165 yards on 29 carries and scored on a 5-yard run late in the game.

Stevko was so big for Shelton, even his mistakes turned into big plays.

With Shelton only ahead 14-7 in the third quarter, Stevko caught a short pass from quarterback Mike Brighindi and fumbled the ball forward into the hands of teammate Darek Lesczynski, who carried it 33 yards for a touchdown and a 21-7 lead.

"I fumbled the ball," said Stevko of the play, which Newtown vehemently argued was an illegal forward lateral. "I guess it turned into a nice play."

Newtown (0-1), which had largely bottled up Shelton's offense for most of the night, still didn't go away.

DeVellis, who had thrown a 10-yard touchdown pass to Kurt Nacewicz just before halftime, raced 50 yards and threw a 32-yard pass to Jamie Vavreck down to get his team to Shelton 1-yard line with just under five minutes to play. On second-and-goal, DeVellis appeared to threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Kurt Nacewicz.

But a holding call nullified the play and, on third and goal from the 15, DeVellis' pass bounced off Nacewicz in the end zone and into the waiting arms of Stevko who took it 63 yards the other way.

"At 21-7 they had scored on a kickoff return, a double pass and an alleged forward lateral," Newtown coach Steve George said afterward.

"What are you going to do? Sometimes things don't go your way.

"The back-breaker was the holding call. We scored right there and it was 21-14. Taking the points off the board was obviously a big deal."

DeVellis finished 15 of 31 for 135 yards and ran 14 times for 73 yards. "We just had trouble making things happen," George said. "But I'm proud of my kids.